The New York Mets have agreed to hire Eric Chavez as their hitting coach, just weeks after he joined the crosstown New York Yankees as an assistant hitting coach, sources confirmed to ESPN on Thursday.
Neither team has spoken publicly on the matter, but the transition, while uncommon, was said to have been executed in good faith.
Chavez, who was announced as part of Aaron Boone’s staff with the Yankees on Dec. 20, now will help make up the burgeoning staff of longtime manager Buck Showalter and join Mets general manager Billy Eppler for the third time.
Chavez, a six-time Gold Glove third baseman during a playing career that spanned 17 years, was hired by the Yankees as a special assignment scout in 2015 when Eppler served as assistant GM. When Eppler presided over the Los Angeles Angels‘ baseball-operations department shortly thereafter, he hired Chavez as a special assistant and later named him manager of the team’s Triple-A affiliate.
The Mets have also brought in Joey Cora to be their third-base coach and will reportedly add Wayne Kirby as first-base coach.
Cora, the older brother of Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora, was a longtime coach for the Chicago White Sox under former manager Ozzie Guillen and spent the last five years as third-base coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Kirby served as Showalter’s first-base coach with the Baltimore Orioles from 2011 to 2018 and held the same job with the San Diego Padres over the last two years.
MLB.com first reported that Chavez would join the Mets.